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Season 14 of The Biggest Loser premiered last weekend, featuring three teenagers for the first time ever, and critics are in an uproar. There’s so much controversy surrounding the decision to include teens on the show, and I’m finding myself kind of angry about the criticism.

Why is it so bad that there’s a show helping obese teens lose weight? It’s not like they have 100-pound cheerleaders competing. These are actual obese teens who can’t do normal teen things because they’re so overweight. These are teens who want to change their lifestyles.

Critics of the choice are saying that having teens on the show presents a confusing message and perpetuates body image issues. Huffington Post Teen Associate Editor Carolyn Gregoire said:

“You see adults on the show who are running until they fall, until they’re vomiting, and they’re being yelled at. We don’t want to be sending that message to a vulnerable young person who can be very triggered by seeing this kind of activity. I don’t think that shame and creating a fat-phobic culture is a motivating way to tell people they need to be healthy.”

It appears that most of the critics haven’t even seen the show. The teens aren’t doing the same tasks as the adults. The kids don’t even participate in weigh-ins, and they don’t get eliminated. Longtime trainer Bob Harper says:

“With the kids, we wanted to do exactly the opposite of when we work with the adults. We do no breaking down, just lifting up … It’s about getting kids to move around again and getting kids to be kids.“

Isn’t this better than shows like Teen Mom and 16 And Pregnant? I know those shows are controversial on their own, but why is there so much backlash about kids getting healthy? This theory that all teens who watch the show will get body dysmorphic disorder and become fat-phobic is absurd. I think if anything, seeing obese teens get their lives back will be inspiring and helpful.

Surely there are obese teens watching that will aim to make changes in their lives. I don’t think this is going to send teens into an eating-disorder frenzy. The show never encourages contestants to starve themselves. It encourages healthy ways to lose weight, healthy workouts, healthy everything.

It’s also kind of insulting to the teen population that these critics think so little of their intelligence. Y’all are smart. You’re not going to think you’re fat simply because three teens on a show are working out and losing weight to you know, not be obese anymore.

I think having teens on The Biggest Loser is great. I hope these teens have so much success on the show that producers decide to have an all-teen series.

What do you think about there being teen contestants? Do you think it will help other overweight teens? Do you think it will be harmful? Tell me what you think in the comments!

Since we’re talking about weight, Facebook could be the culprit for those extra pounds!

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I’ve heard of a lot of crazy weight loss diets, secrets, tips and tricks – but this one just may take the cake. Apparently, the inventor of Segways has teamed up with a company called Aspire Bariatrics to design a pump that will literally suck the fat out of your stomach. I can’t be the only one who thinks this is completely crazy.

Here’s how this would work, according to the Aspire Bariatrics site: the pump basically reduces the amount of calories absorbed by your body so that you don’t gain weight (more calories = more weight gain). How does it do that? After you eat something, food is temporarily stored in your stomach as the digestion process begins. Your stomach starts breaking down your food and then passes it to the intestines and that’s where your calories are absorbed. The AspireAssist (the name of this crazy pump) sucks that food out of your stomach before the calories can be absorbed.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Yeah, it’s basically like eating and then throwing up your food. But instead of throwing up, you’re just going to stick an A-Tube™ into your stomach through a hole in your abdomen. No biggie. The A-Tube™ will suck the fat out and is controlled by a little handheld device. UM. There are so many things wrong with this.

For one thing, how does this actually effectively work? The ladies over at Jezebel asked a lot of the same questions I was thinking of: what about the risk of infection? What about all of the other scary complications that come with sticking a foreign object in your body? How does this work once you’ve reached a goal weight? Your body isn’t properly losing weight, so your metabolism isn’t really changing – so I’m going to assume that once you stop using this, you’ll probably just gain all of that weight back simply because you’re once again eating and digesting food normally.

I mean, this thing just doesn’t sound healthy at all. As Jezebel pointed out, this is coming from the dude who invented Segways, otherwise known as the guy who gave us a lazy alternative to walking. That means that this is a lazy alternative to eating healthy. The idea of this seems to be that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight (although one newspaper discovered that that’s not true). That can’t possibly be safe or good for you.

Ladies, please don’t fall into this. If you want to get healthy, the best way to do it is to simply eat foods that are good for you, maybe eat less and workout on a regular basis. I’m so sick of hearing about these crazy fad diets, like no eating after 5 PM (that’s INSANE), and these ridiculous pills and/or machines that promise results that don’t even sound like they’re good for you. That kind of stuff might help you lose weight quickly, but it’s not going to keep it off. It’s also not going to keep you healthy, which is the most important thing you should be worrying about.

Would you ever try something like this? Do you think it’s ridiculous? Have you ever tried a crazy diet? Tell us in the comments.

Being slightly overweight may be a health benefit

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